Praise for Juiceboxers
“Juiceboxers is an unvarnished, intimately informed dissection of war’s physical and emotional derangements. So many moments in Benjamin Hertwig’s dark but ultimately tender novel reminded me, with eerie precision, of things I had seen and heard while covering the invasion of Afghanistan – the marrow-deep racism; the casual bloodlust; the desperate need to belong to something, anything. To read this book is to contend with what the enterprise of industrial-scale violence can do to its most active participants, the many ways in which one emerges from so bloody a thing dislocated from who they used to be.” OMAR EL AKKAD author of What Strange Paradise and American War
“Juiceboxers is not a coming-of-age story – it is a coming to grips story. The reader is lulled through desert days and nights where time is absent, but the bravado and bigotry of war isn’t. From the sandy hills and mountains of Afghanistan to the slushy streets of Edmonton, Hertwig’s poetic prose leaves us with a sense of hope . . . [Hertwig’s words] do not shy away from horror and healing.” NORMA DUNNING author of Tainna and Annie Muktuk and Other Stories
“Juiceboxers is a fiercely honest portrait of young soldiers fighting a war Canada would rather forget and then discovering that it has followed them home. Benjamin Hertwig’s debut novel is an unflinching act of remembrance, a tale of brotherhood and prejudice, and a moving portrait of lives and friendships forged and torn apart.” THOMAS WHARTON author of The Book of Rain and Icefields
“Tempering harshness with tenderness and humour, Benjamin Hertwig’s Juiceboxers maps external and internal territories of conflict with sure grasp of character. A gripping addition to the canon of the literature of war and what comes after.” NABEN RUTHNUM author of A Hero of Our Time
Praise for Benjamin Hertwig
“In his quiet way, Benjamin Hertwig shows us the terror and wonder of being alive. . . . a powerful exploration of violence, longing, and the before and after of ‘time and war and other old gods’ . . . profound and beautiful.” DEBORAH CAMPBELL
“Hertwig touches on some of our deepest national myths, only to push in, breaking the veneer of patriotism to reveal something much more potent. CV2
“Hertwig remembers, in lyrical detail, moments of violence, fear, and respite. He traces violence from the schoolyard to war, and its aftermath for the soldier. The consequences of the indiscriminate violence of war are made delicate in spite of an uneasiness with making poetry of it.” MONTREAL REVIEW OF BOOKS
“Benjamin Hertwig served in the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan, and this hard-hitting debut collection is the record of a soldier’s heart, before, during and after war.” TORONTO STAR
